


Distant Voices In The Darkness

by galaxy_neozone



Series: A Look, A Voice, Darkness And A Silence [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: AU Donghyuck, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, At the same time, Brothers, But not exactly, Canon NCT, Family, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, JaeHyuck Figure Out Their Shit, JohnHyuck Bonding, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan-centric, M/M, Mending Relationships, Mentioned NCT Ensemble, Multi, NCT Dream - Freeform, NCT U, OOC Donghyuck, OT21 (NCT), Team as Family, This Lee Donghyuck Is An Asshole, WayV - Freeform, You'll See Why Pretty Quickly, au but not au, but he has his reasons, companion fic, markhyuck, nct 127, this is his story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:27:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25166950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxy_neozone/pseuds/galaxy_neozone
Summary: 'Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing,Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another,Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.'- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1874)There are always two sides to every story: You've read Haechan's. Now discover Donghyuck's.This is a companion piece toShips Passing In The Night. You probably should read that one first, or this will make very little sense to you.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun & Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun & Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan & Everyone, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan & Mark Lee, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan & Suh Youngho | Johnny, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee, Other Ships Implied/Mentioned
Series: A Look, A Voice, Darkness And A Silence [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1845535
Comments: 92
Kudos: 584





	Distant Voices In The Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> This is the companion fic that a lot of people have been requesting. I've been deliberately vague about it up until now, but I think it was pretty inevitable that it would come down to this. Donghyuck's story is not going to be a joy ride, and this poor kid is all kinds of fucked up, so consider that before reading further. He's also a lot more sweary and, well, unlikeable than Haechan, so be warned.
> 
> N.B. I don't plan to add anything to this now until the main fic is done. Consider this a teaser, or a prologue. I'll come back to it when I'm ready.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Under-age drinking, vomit

Donghyuck was completely, undisputably fucked.

He was fucked _up_ , for one--the excessive volume of alcohol currently poisoning him from the inside out was a testament to that--but the cloying, fuzzy haze that had started to obscure his vision was child’s play when compared to his most pressing concern. Especially when said concern was around six foot three, built like a line-backer and gaining on him with considerable speed.

“Get back here, you little shit!” The male voice sounded about as angry as it had five minutes earlier, when the man had first walked in on Donghyuck sharing a mystery cocktail with his college girlfriend. It shouldn’t really have come as much of a surprise then, given how she’d been draped suggestively over the high schooler’s lap at the time, that the older man hadn't stopped to ask for context before reacting. Instead, he’d come out of the gate swinging--literally--with reflexes just dulled enough from intoxication to give a not-quite-drunk Donghyuck time to duck, and then the boy had been running for his life.

It was a pity, really, Donghyuck thought, as he mentally chastised himself for his woeful lack of stamina and any discernable physical fitness. If the college guy had stopped for more than a split second to ask, they could have told him that they were both far more interested in her sorority sister’s senior boyfriend than each other--or him--but it didn't really matter any more. What did matter now was getting away, preferably without puking up on the street on the way.

“Donghee-oppa.” There was another voice behind him now, one that Donghyuck thought belonged to the man’s girlfriend. He couldn't remember her name, only that she’d been more than happy to sit and talk shit about everyone else at the party with him, all the while sneaking them both more drinks whenever the hosts’ backs were turned.

He’d become pretty well known in these circles at this point, alongside those of his friends who were brave or foolhardy enough to follow him, and so he’d had to get sneakier than ever to snag more than a few stray beers lately, before whoever was in charge cut him off and sent the token high school kid home to bed in shame on a school night. Having a willing ally, one who was old enough to pass under the radar, had been great tonight while it had lasted.

“I don’t want to hear it, Yuri. I saw you with him!”

“It’s not what it looks like,” the girl practically whined, and Donghyuck took the opportunity to sneak a look back over his shoulder. The unhappy couple had stopped in the middle of the empty road, glaring daggers at each other under the moonlight. The girl looked close to tears, even as she swayed unsteadily on her heels, and the man looked torn between continuing his pursuit and confronting his girlfriend, so Donghyuck decided to make the decision for him.

Darting down a narrow side-street that he knew well, groaning to himself as his hamstrings protested his late-night exertions, Donghyuck ducked into the shadows behind a nearby fence to catch his breath. A few seconds later, from back out in the main street, he heard a faint bellow of frustration that spoke of a man just realising his prey had escaped, and he pressed back even further into the swallowing darkness.

The night fell utterly silent, save for his quick, laboured breaths and the unrelenting drumming of his heartbeat behind his eyeballs, and Donghyuck waited. He suspected that the man was just drunk enough to allow the girl to drag him back inside. If that was the case, he hoped that the memory of the younger boy’s face would have faded by the following weekend, allowing Donghyuck to return for yet another illicit foray into college revelry and excitement.

“Thank fuck,” he whispered into the night, when nobody rounded the corner after a few tense minutes. He could still hear the faint strains of pounding techno music from somewhere in the distance, reminding him of all the fun and chaos he was missing out on, but thought better of trying to return. He’d never be allowed back in tonight; too many people had witnessed his little altercation, and it would still be too fresh in their minds. Next week would have to do, as disappointing as that was.

The night was still relatively young, Donghyuck thought lazily, as he stared up at the full, luminous moon overhead. It seemed abnormally close tonight, although that might be because he was starting to see two of them overlapping and blurring in and out of focus, but he thought it looked pretty fucking beautiful to him right then. Almost as beautiful as not getting beaten half to death by a jealous college meathead, one who didn't realise that he was far more Donghyuck’s type that the girl he was stressing over.

Extracting himself from his hiding spot, Donghyuck headed further down the alleyway, pulling his phone from his back pocket. He almost dropped it twice, fumbling with stiff fingers against the smooth, shiny metal for a moment, but then the screen illuminated and set his face and chest aglow. Tapping to navigate to his top contact, he dialled quickly and set the phone to loudspeaker. For a brief moment, as it rang out once and then again, Donghyuck wondered if this might be the one time that she didn't pick up, but then there was a click and a muffled sigh.

“Hyuck-ah? Where are you?” She sounded confused but not entirely surprised to receive his call, and Donghyuck couldn't help but smirk. Just as he’d thought. He had Yang Hyojin well-trained by this point in their friendship, if you could even call it that, and he already knew how this conversation would go.

“I’m nearly at your car.” He reached the end of the street and turned left, spotting the familiar silver hatchback parked up next to the curb. Striding over to it, Donghyuck felt his stomach churn unpleasantly, but shoved the sensation aside temporarily. “Find Jinyoung and, uh--” He broke off, unable to remember the other boy’s name.

“Changmin,” Hyojin offered sharply. She sounded like she wanted to scold him, but managed to hold her tongue as he grunted in acknowledgement. It wasn't his fault he couldn't remember the kid’s name, after all. It wasn't like he hung out with any of them because he actually liked them, so he couldn’t be expected to remember everyone. They all needed something from him, wanted to stay in his good graces, but he couldn't say the same for them. He couldn't care less.

“Yeah,” he muttered dismissively. “Whatever. Find them both and meet me out by the car. We’re leaving.”

For a moment, there was nothing on the other end of the line, save for static and the hum of an obnoxiously boosted bassline in the background, then Hyojin said, “What? Why?”

“I’m not feeling it tonight. I’m tired.” That hadn't been remotely true a few short minutes earlier in the packed living room of the ground-floor college dorm, with a pleasant, tipsy buzz creeping down his limbs and curling into a warm ball in his gut, but now the cold asphalt was starting to look really damn comfortable and the pounding in Donghyuck’s head had pitched headlong from exhilarating into nauseating.

“Do we have to?” Hyojin asked reluctantly. The background noises shifted around her as she spoke, letting Donghyuck know that she was already on the move and following his instructions like the loyal friend she was, but he answered her anyway.

“Just get here quickly,” he snapped, leaning heavily on the passenger side door of the small car as the darkness roiled and shifted precariously in front of his eyes. “I think I’m going to hurl, and I’d hate to have to do it on your new car.” He grimaced, although not because of the sharp intake of breath that echoed from the device clutched in his shaking fingers, and unleashed his trump card. “School starts tomorrow anyway, remember? You want me to put in a good word for you with hyung, don’t you?”

“Fine.” That was a low blow and Donghyuck knew it, even as the girl spat out the petulant response and then hung up on him. He knew just how much Hyojin wanted a lead role in one of the school productions in the coming year and, as the incumbent drama vice-president, he had a significant arsenal of material that he could use to get her to do whatever he wanted. He knew that Dejun was about as likely to listen to his casting suggestions as he was to grow a third hand out of his forehead, but _she_ didn't--and that was all that mattered. Just the merest threat of Donghyuck not endorsing her, and she was putty in his hands.

The next hour was a blur, as the haze fully descended and he drifted in and out of awareness. He vaguely remembered throwing up in a flowerbed, although he couldn't be totally sure it hadn't been directly onto the sidewalk, and then three figures emerging from the dark alleyway behind him. One of them, the one who was shorter and smelled like lavender, helped him into the car, and then he passed out for a while.

When he woke again, the car wasn't moving anymore and his cheek was pressed against something cool and smooth. He almost fell when the door--he had been leaning against the door?--opened and a different, coarser set of hands pulled him from his seat and out into the cold night air. The journey up the pitch-black driveway was a struggle, as was remembering that he owned house keys--let alone where on his person he had decided to store them for the evening--but then he was stumbling up the stairs and crashing down face first on his bed. If he did anything else that night, he certainly didn't remember it, and then the world fell away into the void again.

\--

The beeping of his alarm was goddamn irritating, Donghyuck thought, as the persistent sound slammed into each of his eardrums individually and threatened to dislodge the remaining functioning portions of his brain out through his nostrils. Every inch of his skin ached, like he’d just gone twelve rounds in the ring with the huge, angry guy he vaguely recalled chasing him the previous night, and the air around him was too hot and stifling to allow him to breathe properly.

“Shut up!” He swung out an arm in the direction of his bedside table, aiming for his alarm clock, then howled in pain as his fist met something hard and immovable instead. Eyes still clenched tightly shut, Donghyuck hugged the throbbing appendage in tight to his chest, the oversensitive skin of his thumb brushing against the smooth cotton of his sleep shirt, and waited for the biting pain to ease. The stupid alarm was still going off--somewhere on the other side of the bed, he now realised--and he really, desperately needed it to stop. It was far too early to wake up, his body was screaming that at him without hesitation or mercy, and he was far too hungover for this shit.

“Haechanie, turn that off.” A low, deep voice punctured the mental shield he was building inside his head, distant but clear enough for him to make out every word. Donghyuck froze, eyelids still squeezed tightly shut, and listened. For a few moments, there was nothing but the alarm, but then the voice manifested again. “Damn it. There’s no way he can still be sleeping through that racket.”

The voice sounded closer now, almost like it was right outside. Donghyuck had just enough time to remind himself that there were only currently meant to be two people inside his house--and he was pretty sure his mom hadn’t suddenly started singing baritone--before a door slammed open and footsteps pounded into the room. The presence shifted closer, until he thought he could actually feel the warmth of another body moving alongside his bed, and then the alarm cut off abruptly.

“Get up, Haechan,” the voice said coolly. They didn't sound angry, or like they were about to murder him with a chainsaw or anything, but there was a trace of impatience in their tone that was deliberate and laboured. “You have less than ten minutes to get your ass out of bed and get dressed, or we’re leaving you behind.” There was a pause, during which a heavy silence fell in the space around him, and then the voice added, “You might want to actually try in practice today too. I can’t keep covering for you anymore.”

As Donghyuck’s eyes flew open at those words, three things became immediately clear. First, he was definitely not in his own house. This room was about the same size as his bedroom, but the walls were the wrong colour, the door was in the far corner instead of by the foot of his bed, there were two beds occupying the cramped space, and there wasn't nearly enough light streaming in through a window that appeared to be almost completely covered by thick, blackout curtains.

Second, despite the diminished light provided by a single, bare energy-saving bulb hanging above his head, Donghyuck’s head still pounded with what he was pretty sure was the single worst hangover of his life. With reference to his first revelation, he briefly entertained the possibility that someone had drugged him with something stronger than alcohol, but he could still remember most of the previous night and the dull ache that encompassed every inch of his skin felt a little too acute for him to have been incapacitated like that.

Third, and most pressingly, the voice that had joined him inside this strange, unfamiliar bedroom belonged to one of the tallest, and most intimidatingly handsome men Donghyuck had ever seen. He had flawless skin, a slender yet clearly well-built physique, and dyed mid-brown hair that was styled perfectly to frame his eyes--eyes that were now boring deep into Donghyuck’s own, like he knew his deepest, darkest secrets.

“What are you looking at?” Donghyuck wasn't sure why he said the words, in truth, but he was hungover, tired and already so incredibly done with today. He had no clue where he was or why, nor who this strange, imposing guy was, and, if his head didn't hurt so damn much, he’d probably be concerned about all of those things. Right now though, he just wanted to go back to sleep. “Go away.”

“You’re kidding, right?” The man quirked a single, unamused eyebrow, and then the bedsheets were being ripped away from on top of him and tossed onto the floor in a pile at the man’s feet. With a yelp, Donghyuck scrambled up and away from the sudden assault, curling his knees up into his chest as he pressed back against the wall behind him. His elbow knocked into something solid, and he glanced to the side just enough to spot the dreaded alarm clock on a low shelving unit positioned against the wall between the two beds.

“What are you doing?” Donghyuck managed to choke out, turning his attention back to the stranger just in time to see a look of bewilderment flicker across that handsome face. Then it was replaced by pure, unadulterated annoyance, and the man’s lips curled down into a scowl.

“Haechan, this is not the time for another one of your games,” the man said, voice rising dangerously in volume with each word. Donghyuck flinched instinctively, hands coming up to protect his ears from the loud noise.

“Dude, stop yelling,” he snapped, fingers curling down around the fleshy part along the top of his ears. “I’m way too hungover to deal with any of this shit this morning.” Donghyuck’s index finger brushed across several unfamiliar earrings, his eyes widening as his brain belatedly registered that they were his own, and then he hunched further in on himself. He didn't know what was going on, or how he’d gotten himself into this mess, but he was ready to go home now.

“I--” The man faltered for the first time, aborting his move to step closer to Donghyuck again as he stared down at the younger boy. Donghyuck didn't look up at him, eyes fixed on the crumpled sheets on the floor at the man’s feet, but he thought he sounded concerned when he next spoke. “That’s not possible. You fell asleep less than four hours ago and, before that, I listened to you play Overwatch for six straight hours last night. There’s no way you had time to get drunk while I was out of the room getting breakfast either, so, if this is some elaborate plan to get out of practice today, you’re out of your mind.”

“Overwatch?” Donghyuck vaguely remembered seeing an advert for a game of that name on the television a few months back. It had looked pretty fun, but trends took forever to reach their tiny, piece-of-shit town and he didn't have a console to play it on anyway. They had never had enough money for things like that, as much as he’d begged his parents for one before his last birthday. “Isn’t that the new game people have been talking about?”

“Are you okay, Haechan-ah?” The man moved then, shifting until he sat on the bed at Donghyuck’s feet. He tilted his head to one side, hair shifting with him as he did so, and fixed the younger boy with another look that was heavy with concern, confusion and way too much familiarity. “Are you really sick?”

“Why do you keep calling me that?”

“What? Haechan?” The man frowned, brows pulling tightly together above his nose. “You usually hate it when I call you Donghyuck.” The younger boy’s breath hitched and he shrank back against the wall again, eyes widening in surprise. This man knew his name. Donghyuck didn't know how, but this man knew something about him that he definitely hadn't shared willingly.

“What’s going on? Where am I?” The man started to lean in arms outstretched, but the fear in Donghyuck’s eyes must have been enough to halt him in his tracks, because he stopped dead like he’d been frozen in place.

“Haechan-ah?”

Donghyuck’s nerve snapped and he jumped to his feet, backing quickly away from the bed--and from the strange man who still sat motionless atop it. He stilled when his back hit the lip of the window sill, and he adopted his best defensive stance. “Stop calling me that. I’m not him. I’m not this Haechan. I have no idea what’s going on here, or who you are, but I want to leave now. I just want to go home.”

“Uh…” Donghyuck considered making a break for the door, but it was on the opposite side of the room and there was a lot of ground to cover between here and there. There was also the small matter of the potentially insane stranger who had yet to take his eyes of the younger boy, even as he now rose gracefully and moved to block the doorframe. The man leant his head out of the door a little, the one visible eye still flicking rapidly from Donghyuck’s face to his trembling hands and back.

“Taeyongie?” he called, voice carrying down what sounded like a long hallway outside the room. For a moment, there was yet more silence, then another male voice answered him.

“Yeah? Is he up yet?”

“Kind of.” There was another pause, as the man twisted to face Donghyuck fully again, then he looked away and stepped out into the hallway. “I need your help. We have a bit of a problem here.”

“We’re going to be late,” the new voice said--Taeyong, Donghyuck guessed--and then another one of the most unnaturally beautiful people Donghyuck had ever seen stepped into the room, trailing behind his tall friend. This man’s large eyes were striking, and his bleached white-blond hair looked like nothing Donghyuck had ever seen outside of glossy magazines and popular television shows, but it was the compassion and affection oozing from every pore that he couldn't wrap his head around. This man looked at him with love, like they were the closest two people on Earth, and, yet, Donghyuck knew that they had never met before this morning. “What’s going on, Johnny?”

The first man, Johnny, didn't answer. Instead, he looked expectantly over at Donghyuck, as if anticipating the same panicked reaction as before. Despite the hangover, the confusion and the uncertainty as to his safety and whereabouts, that instantly got Donghyuck’s hackles up and he scowled at them both.

He might be terrified, and he might currently be trapped in a room by two men who looked barely older than his brother, but he wasn’t the Neo City High School Drama Society’s youngest ever VP for nothing. He could fake confidence with the best of them, at least until he was able to make his escape and get back home.

Taking a deep breath, Donghyuck squared his shoulders, lowered his shaking hands to his sides and fixed both men with as scathing a look as he could muster. He let one corner of his top lip curl up into a practised snarl that he hoped masked the unease within, and channelled his best Oscar-winning performance.

“I asked nicely before, and I didn’t get an answer, so I’ll ask one more time before I call the police. Who the fuck are you?”

**Author's Note:**

> If you're reading this, then it means you found it before I announced it on the main story. Once I do, I'll get rid of this note, so you're one of only probably like 5 people who'll see it. Congrats, I guess... I'm using this as a bit of an experiment to see if anyone actually notices that I added the main fic to a series. If you found it that way, you won. Yay! :)
> 
> Anyway, for the very first time on this side of the universe, have a wonderful day! <3


End file.
